Brynn hit the water with a splash. Liquid ice wrapped around her, steeling her breath like a punch to the stomach as she sank beneath the glassy surface.
The wild panic gripping her before she fell in vanished almost instantly. A strange calm wrapped around her and her limbs went lax as she sank deeper.
This is it, a soft voice whispered. This is what you’ve been missing. This is where you belong.
Brynn peered up through the dark water toward the surface and the woman standing at the end of the dock watching her drown. But it wasn’t Ruth she saw wrapped in winter twilight. It was Meris, her mother, surrounded by summer green. She looked down at Brynn, her long red hair tousled from the struggle, a smile of grim satisfaction lighting her lovely features.
Breathe. Take a deep, long breath and you’ll be where you were meant to be.
Brynn’s lungs burned, ready to explode. It would be so easy. Why had she ever been afraid of this?
Something cold and slick brushed her arm. She turned to look into a dead, bloated face. Eye sockets black and empty. A dark slash curved across the neck, gaping like a malicious smile.
Holy God there were dead things down there! And soon she’d be one of them.
Fear pierced her chest, panic slamming into her and pulling her out of her dreamlike state. She flailed wildly, hands digging uselessly through the water to pull herself toward the surface. A white froth formed around her, making it impossible to see. Her lungs ached. Tiny red dots flashed in her field of vision.
She was going to die.
Something wrapped around her middle. Visions of the hideous bloated face, reaching for her with dead white hands, pulling her into the black abyss below filled her head. She swung her arms, kicked her feet, but the arm held tight to her waist.
She burst through the surface, swallowing huge gulping mouthfuls of air.
“Are you all right?” Reece’s panicked voice broke into her thoughts. Her body sagged against his heaving chest.
She nodded, unable to speak while dragging air into her burning lungs.
With long strokes, Reece hauled them both toward the shore. Once her feet touched bottom, she trudged to the bank. Gooey mud sucked at her feet—she’d lost her shoes when Ruth shoved her in—and Reece gripped her elbow to help her keep balance.
“No!” Ruth shouted. She stomped one foot like a toddler having a tantrum. “No. She has to die in the water. She has to drown. Put her back.”
It’s where you belong. It’s how it was supposed to be.
Brynn stumbled up the bank, eager to be as far from the water as possible. She wrapped her arms around her middle, but couldn’t stop shivering. Her teeth chattered uncontrollably. How long until hypothermia kicked in?
“Put. Her. Back. In!” Ruth’s voice rose with each word. It was almost full dark, and the trees cast long shadows over the clearing, making it impossible to read Ruth’s expression. But as she lifted her arm, Brynn could see the glint of the blade in her hand even in the low light.
“You’re done, Ruth,” Reece said, his voice shaky, his words breathless. He was probably as cold as she was. “Harding’s on his way.”
Ruth took a quick step toward them, waving her knife wildly. “He’s coming for Eleri. You made sure of that. I need him to find her in the water, and you here.”
Brynn’s stomach churned sickly. She dropped her gaze to the ground, searching the darkness for something to use as a weapon.
“We found your book,” Reece pushed on. “We took it to Harding. He knows all about you.”
Ruth faltered this time, the arm with the knife dropping for a moment only to go rigid again. “He wouldn’t believe you. I heard what you said to Mrs. Voyle. You thought Eleri had done something to her. He’s coming for Eleri.”
“We told him about Judith and Hazelwood,” Brynn added, through ragged breaths. “And Eleri isn’t here.” Snow covering the forest floor and fading light made it impossible for Brynn to find a rock or branch or something to hit the woman with—unless she dropped to all fours and dug through the freezing wet. She hoped Reece hadn’t been bluffing about Harding. “They won’t be able to prove it was her. It’ll be just like Matthew Langley and Olivia.”
“No.” Ruth shook her head vehemently. “It won’t matter. Not with you here. This time they’ll know that it was her.”
“No, Ruth.” Reece stretched his arm in front of Brynn as if to shield her and started walking backward, forcing Brynn to do the same. “This time they’ll know it was you.”
Ruth let out a furious scream and charged. The blade slashed at Reece. He shoved Brynn away and she stumbled back onto her butt. Ruth’s knife sliced Reece’s forearm, and he hissed through his teeth. Tiny, dark drops sank into the snow, and terror burst in Brynn’s chest.
“No!” She scrambled to her feet just as Reece managed to catch hold of Ruth’s wrist. The nurse let out a keening wail and the knife dropped. Brynn darted forward and snatched it up, holding it out, ready to use. But Reece swung Ruth in front of him and wrapped her in a bear hug, pinning the woman’s arms to her sides, the same way she’d held Brynn’s when she’d dragged her onto the dock. Ruth screeched and wriggled, trying to twist away, but Reece held firm.
Men’s voices called from the darkness. Yellow flashlight beams darted between the trees.
Reece had been telling the truth. Relief swamped her, nearly knocking her off her rubbery legs.
“We’re here,” she tried to call out, but her voice scratched as if her throat had been scraped with sandpaper. She cleared her throat and tried again. “We’re here!”
Harding burst through the trees, light hitting Brynn square in the face. She squinted and looked to Reece. He tossed a squirming Ruth aside and the woman sank into the snow, sobbing.
“Good God,” the detective muttered, his gaze shifting between her and Reece. “Are you both all right?”
“His arm’s cut,” she managed through chattering teeth, cradling her sore wrist. She really hoped it wasn’t broken.
“It’s not bad,” Reece said, holding up the arm in question. His sleeve gaped wide. “My jacket took the worst of it.”
The detective nodded. “We’ve paramedics on the way.”
Someone dropped a heavy coat around her shoulders, but she didn’t see who. Police swarmed the area, hauling Ruth to her feet and securing her hands behind her back.
“It’s Eleri. She’s the one,” Ruth sobbed. “She’s evil. She should be punished. Not me. She’s the murderer. And that one. She’ll turn out the same. You’ll see. She’ll turn. The longer she’s here, the darkness will take her.”
The woman’s predictions sent chills slithering along Brynn’s spine that had nothing to do with the cold. The image of that dead, bloated face, empty eye sockets staring back at her filled her head. Her stomach churned. Who was he? How had he wound up in there?
What did it mean for Eleri?
“I need to get her back to the house and out of those wet things,” Reece said to Harding.
“Right, of course. Miller take them back and see that the paramedics check them both over.”
“Right.” The taller detective made his way over, and Reece gripped her elbow to help her back to her feet.
“Wait.” Brynn stepped in front of Harding. His brows pulled together. “When I was in the water, I saw something. There was a man, a dead man.”
His face stayed blank, expression unreadable. “Let me make sure I understand. You saw a body in The Devil’s Eye?”
She swallowed hard and nodded.
A smile pulled at the man’s thin lips, dark delight lighting his face. Brynn’s stomach knotted. What had she done?
Chapter Twenty-One
Brynn stood at the window watching the flurry of activity below. Police and crime scene investigators scurried between the cars parked in the courtyard. Harding had divers out at first light, and three hours later the first of the body bags had been brought out. Brynn had lost track of how many others had followed after the third.
Her thoughts drifted to the night before, of coming back to the house and the genuine relief in her sister’s face when Eleri had seen that she and Reece were safe.
Could Eleri be a killer? Was she responsible for what Brynn had seen in those murky waters?
“He’ll see you,” Warlow said, words clipped and icy. Brynn jumped and turned away from the window. While his expression remained impassive, his eyes shone with animosity.
Brynn started for her father’s door. She had no idea why the man was so angry with her. Maybe because he realized she wasn’t going anywhere soon.
“It’s a mistake letting you stay, and I told him so,” the butler said. He stood with his hands gripped behind his back. Maybe to stop himself from throttling her. “You’ve caused nothing but havoc since you’ve arrived.”
“The havoc I caused? The fact that you hired a crazy woman to care for your employer has nothing to do with me. She was killing people long before I arrived.”
His scowl darkened. “He’s growing worse. Don’t upset him.”
She doubted very much she could help but upset him. Not with everything she had to say. Still, she shot Hugh a tight, phony smile. “Of course.”
Brynn turned and walked into her father’s room. The smell of sickness—of death—caught her full force and her step faltered. She drew a deep breath through her mouth and forced her feet forward.
Dull light spilled through the windows, falling on the sallow, shriveled man beneath the blankets. Eerie silence gripped the room except for the relentless hiss of the oxygen tank.
Arthur looked considerably worse than he had the previous week. His closed eyes were sunken, dark half-moons smudged beneath them. His face was gaunt, skin haggard.
Releasing a slow breath, she lowered herself into the chair next to the bed. His eyes opened and locked on her, as alert as ever.
“Still alive, I see,” he wheezed.
Try not to sound so happy about it. She was sore, tired and her sprained wrist ached even with the painkillers, but she was alive. “What can I say? I’m tough to get rid of.”
The man smirked at the double meaning. At least she thought he did. It could have just as easily been a grimace.
“Have you come to say goodbye?”
Brynn shook her head. “I came to tell you I remembered what happened. It was Meris, wasn’t it?”
He didn’t reply, merely turned his gaze to the sea.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” she pushed.
“What would have been the point?” He continued to stare out the window. “You were out of harm’s way. Why relive the stigma of another mad wife?”
Two wives who’d lost their minds. What was it about this place?
“Was Meris always—” Insane? Sick? Evil? “—the way she was?”
Arthur hesitated as if choosing his words carefully. “For as long as I knew your mother, she wanted what she wanted and she would do whatever she could to get it.”
“What was it she wanted when she tried to drown me?”
“She never said.” He turned away from the window and finally met Brynn’s gaze. “When will you be leaving?”
Oh no, he wasn’t changing the subject. Not until she finally had the answers she came here for. “How could you have kept quiet? Didn’t you worry Meris might kill someone else? Like your other daughter. Meris used to lock her in the basement, did you know that?”
“I believe we’ve already discussed my poor parenting skills. You should be thankful that your grandparents took you.”
“I am, believe me.”
“Now that you have the answers you wanted,” he smirked beneath his oxygen mask, “won’t you be going?”
She shook her head. “Not for a while yet.”
“Aren’t you concerned for your safety? How many bodies have they found?”
“Three, last time I checked. But to answer your question, I’m not worried. Eleri didn’t try to drown me when I was little. She didn’t kill Meris or Matthew Langley or Olivia Dodd. Maybe she had nothing to do with those bodies in the bog, either. She needs someone on her side.” Lord knew, it wasn’t going to be him.
Again that toothy smirk. She waited for him to tell her she wasn’t welcome to stay, just like Hugh wanted him to. Instead, he asked, “Will that man be staying with you? The one working with the police while pretending to work for me.”
She didn’t have an answer. Last night, after the EMTs had treated them—Reece refusing to go to the hospital for the seven stitches in his forearm—they had fallen into bed and slept the clock around. When she woke, he was gone and she had no idea where he went. “I don’t know why he would.”
“Don’t you?” Innuendo dripped from his tone.
Maybe the implication was meant to embarrass her, and if he were her father, maybe it would have. But this man was a stranger.
She stood. “I’ll leave you to rest.”
“If you’re determined to stay, Brynn, you need to be careful.”
“Because of Eleri?”
He shook his head. “Because this place, this land, could be dangerous for you. I would hate to see you wind up like your sister, or your mother.”
Apprehension fluttered in her throat, but she swallowed the sensation. He was trying to freak her out. “I’m not worried.”
She left his room, relieved not to find Warlow hovering outside the door, and hurried to her own room. The house, despite its size, felt like it was closing in on her, the air too thick and hot to breathe. She grabbed her jacket off the end of her bed and shoved her feet into her sneakers before heading downstairs.
She needed quiet, time and space to process everything that had happened. She walked outside and came to a halt.
Normally, she would have gone around back to the courtyard and into the woods, but the forest would be filled with police, and possibly body bags.
She looked up at those steel waves rolling into the shore. Her pulse gave a small jolt, but none of the usual panic appeared. Had remembering what had really happened to her and who was responsible killed her phobia?
Tentatively, she made her way to the stone stairs at the side of the cliff. They were steep and uneven; her heart beat faster while she toyed with the idea of going down.
The hell with it. She took a deep breath, gripped the rough wooden rail and took her first step. She’d probably wind up with more than one splinter in her palm before she reached the bottom, but she didn’t dare let go. The cold, damp wind off the sea slapped at her face and swept her hair back. She kept her attention focused on her feet, refusing to look out at the water. The last thing she needed was to freeze up halfway down.
Once her feet were firmly planted in the wet sand at the bottom, she lifted her gaze to the roiling waves. Her breath caught and her chest squeezed. Instinctively, she reached out and gripped the handrail to anchor herself.
Breathe. In and out. She did, slowly, each breath slightly less shaky than the last.
The wood under her hand trembled. The heavy thud of footsteps rose above the relentless hush of the surf. She lifted her gaze to Reece making his way down.
She hadn’t told him about what she’d remembered. There hadn’t been time with everything that had happened. And she wasn’t sure there would be, now.
Matthew Langley’s killer was caught and Reece’s secret was out. He could leave here anytime. Maybe that’s why he’d followed her down—to say goodbye.
She ignored the ache in her chest and forced a smile as he came to stand beside her.
“What in the world are you doing down here?” he asked. A confused smile pulled at his mouth, his eyes the same shade as the water.
“I wanted to see if I was still afraid, after last night.” Her face warmed. She probably sounded foolish.
“Are you?”
She smirked. “Yes…but maybe not as much. Where did you go this morning?”
“To speak to Harding. Though, to be honest he barely spared me a moment. I had to make do with Mil
ler.”
To find out when he could leave, no doubt.
“Oh?” was all she could manage through her shriveling throat.
“We won’t have to worry about Ruth. With everything they’ve turned up so far, she’ll be going away for a long, long time. She’s confessed to everything.”
“Was Daniel Forbes her son?” she asked.
Reece shook his head. “According to Miller, Daniel wasn’t adopted. Ruth found his picture in the paper and fixated on him. Maybe he looked like the man who’d fathered her child. That’s even if she’s telling the truth about giving a baby up. Miller can’t confirm with her family. They died in a fire when she was nineteen.”
“That sounds suspicious.”
“It does. I suspect the woman’s been killing for a long time.”
A shiver scurried down her spine, and she pulled her jacket tighter around her middle. “I keep thinking about what your uncle said about those shadows being a manifestation of evil. Maybe this place attracts evil people and that’s how Ruth wound up here.”
“I had the same thought.”
Relentless wind swept her hair into her face. She shoved her hand through the strands, holding it back. “Did Miller say anything about the bodies?”
“Not really. They were pulling another out when I left him in the woods.”
“How many now?”
Reece shrugged. “I’m not sure. I thought I heard someone say five.”
Brynn’s stomach sank like an icy brick. “That’s more than Eleri was ever accused of. Have they arrested her yet?”
Reece shook his head. “Not yet. After this mess with Ruth, Harding’s going to be very careful. He’s been after Eleri for a long time. He’s not about to risk her slipping through his fingers now.”
“I practically handed my sister over on a silver platter, didn’t I?”
Reece stepped closer and slipped his hands into his jeans’ pockets. “What choice did you have? You couldn’t have stayed quiet about something like that.”
“I know. I know.” And she wouldn’t have, but she wished telling Harding wasn’t putting the final nail in Eleri’s coffin.
“You think she’s innocent?” Reece asked.
Shivers Box Set: Darkening Around MeLegacy of DarknessThe Devil's EyeBlack Rose (Shivers (Harlequin E)) Page 46
